AIRLINES
Tigerair unveils new routes
Tigerair Taiwan (台灣虎航) yesterday announced new flights from Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport to Macau, Sendai, Japan, and Daegu, South Korea, to meet rising demand during the peak year-end holiday season. In response to Macau’s rising popularity, more flights are to be added on top of 52 weekly flights, the budget subsidiary of China Airlines (中華航空) said. The new flights are to be offered throughout Christmas this year and the Lunar New Year holiday next year, Tigerair said. It said that Daegu is renowned for its autumn leaves, while Sendai is its first destination in Japan’s northeast, from which visitors can easily access nearby cities such as Tokyo.
BANKING
CDIC to factor in security
The government-run Central Deposit Insurance Corp (CDIC, 中央存款保險公司) yesterday said that it would in two years begin to factor in information security into premiums and fees it charges banks. The announcement comes in the aftermath of an automated teller machine heist at state-run First Commercial Bank (第一銀行). CDIC charges insurance fees on banks’ deposits based on their risk profile.
BANKING
Mega Financial ratings hold
Taiwan Ratings Corp (中華信評) yesterday said its ratings of “twAA+” and “twA-1+” for Mega Financial Holding Co (兆豐金控) would remain unchanged after US regulators ordered the state-run company to pay a massive fine for violations of money laundering regulations by its New York banking branch. Given its profitability, Mega Financial would be able to withstand the US$180 million fine, the credit agency said, adding that the amount is equivalent to one-quarter of the company’s profits last year. The company, which leads its domestic peers in overseas presence, should be able to improve its regulatory compliance overseas as it continues to expand abroad, the agency said. However, the latest credit evaluation has not been finalized, and the final decision will require the approval of internal committees, the agency said.
TELECOMS
APT launches maintenance
Asia Pacific Telecom Co (APT, 亞太電信), a telecom arm of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), yesterday launched handset maintenance services for a minimum flat rate of NT$98. The charge is to vary in accordance with subscribers’ devices. To receive the service, subscribers must pay a maximum fee of NT$258 per month for an iPhone 6S. The service is to carry a two-year service contract. During the two-year period, if a subscriber’s smartphone is damaged beyond repair, they can receive a new replacement at a significant discount from retail prices.
ENTERTAINMENT
XPEC shares tumble 9.95%
Game developer XPEC Entertainment Inc’s (樂陞科技) shares yesterday plunged 9.95 percent to NT$89.6 amid concerns on the delayed payment of NT$4.86 billion (US$152.7 million) from a public tender offer initiated by a peer. Bai Chi Gan Tou Digital Entertainment Co (百尺竿頭數位娛樂) in June announced plans to acquire a 25.71 percent stake in XPEC by purchasing 30 million common shares at NT$128 per share. Investors with more than 60 million XPEC shares have heeded Bai Chi Gan Tou’s public tender offer, exceeding the Japanese company’s share acquisition target by 60.5 percent. Bai Chi Gan Tou yesterday announced that the public tender offer period has been extended by five business days, with the deal to conclude on Aug. 31.
FALLING BEHIND: Samsung shares have declined more than 20 percent this year, as the world’s largest chipmaker struggles in key markets and plays catch-up to rival SK Hynix Samsung Electronics Co is laying off workers in Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand as part of a plan to reduce its global headcount by thousands of jobs, sources familiar with the situation said. The layoffs could affect about 10 percent of its workforces in those markets, although the numbers for each subsidiary might vary, said one of the sources, who asked not to be named because the matter is private. Job cuts are planned for other overseas subsidiaries and could reach 10 percent in certain markets, the source said. The South Korean company has about 147,000 in staff overseas, more than half
TECH PARTNERSHIP: The deal with Arizona-based Amkor would provide TSMC with advanced packing and test capacities, a requirement to serve US customers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is collaborating with Amkor Technology Inc to provide local advanced packaging and test capacities in Arizona to address customer requirements for geographical flexibility in chip manufacturing. As part of the agreement, TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, would contract turnkey advanced packaging and test services from Amkor at their planned facility in Peoria, Arizona, a joint statement released yesterday said. TSMC would leverage these services to support its customers, particularly those using TSMC’s advanced wafer fabrication facilities in Phoenix, Arizona, it said. The companies would jointly define the specific packaging technologies, such as TSMC’s Integrated
An Indian factory producing iPhone components resumed work yesterday after a fire that halted production — the third blaze to disrupt Apple Inc’s local supply chain since the start of last year. Local industrial behemoth Tata Group’s plant in Tamil Nadu, which was shut down by the unexplained fire on Saturday, is a key linchpin of Apple’s nascent supply chain in the country. A spokesperson for subsidiary Tata Electronics Pvt yesterday said that the company would restart work in “many areas of the facility today.” “We’ve been working diligently since Saturday to support our team and to identify the cause of the fire,”
Sales RecORD: Hon Hai’s consolidated sales rose by about 20 percent last quarter, while Largan, another Apple supplier, saw quarterly sales increase by 17 percent IPhone assembler Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) on Saturday reported its highest-ever quarterly sales for the third quarter on the back of solid global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) globally, said it posted NT$1.85 trillion (US$57.93 billion) in consolidated sales in the July-to-September quarter, up 19.46 percent from the previous quarter and up 20.15 percent from a year earlier. The figure beat the previous third-quarter high of NT$1.74 trillion recorded in 2022, company data showed. Due to rising demand for AI, Hon Hai said its cloud and networking division enjoyed strong sales
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